Wendy Davis promises victory

AUSTIN – Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis, acknowledging some have already written off her candidacy for governor, promised victory to supporters marking Wednesday’s anniversary of her nationally noted filibuster against tighter abortion restrictions.

“I will never write you off,” she told a crowd at the Palmer Events Center, which cheered her and Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.

The two were defiant, though they are behind in the polls and have an uphill battle against their respective Republican foes – Attorney General Greg Abbott and Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston – in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office for 20 years.

Davis started off philosophically, talking about the filibuster that stalled but didn’t stop a strict abortion law last year.

“Even if you eventually lose the battle, there is freedom in the fight,” she said.

But Davis, who had on the same pink running shoes she wore for the filibuster a year ago, soon made clear she wasn’t ceding the effort to “take our state away” from those she characterized as “failed leaders” and the “old insider network.”

Republican leaders have said the state’s economic success shows their policies are working and it’s no time to change. Democrats say there’s need to address the large population of uninsured, to put more money into education, to fight abuses in payday lending and to give more protections to ensure equal pay.

“It’s time for someone that will keep our Texas promise, the promise that says in this state, at this time, no one gets left behind,” Davis said. “Together I know that we can win the war that we are fighting together this year. We’re finishing this fight, and we will win this fight.”

She added, however, “We’re not going to win it without our collective hard work.”

Van de Putte spoke forcefully and sometimes emotionally as she recalled leaving her father’s funeral last year to return to the Capitol to support the filibuster effort.

“We won’t be silenced, we won’t be ignored and we need to be listened to,” said Van de Putte. Playing on a description that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst gave to last year’s protesters, she said, “We’re going to be the unruly mob for as long as it takes.”

Other Democratic lawmakers marking the occasion were Sens. Kirk Watson of Austin and John Whitmire of Houston, and Reps. Senfronia Thompson and Jessica Farrar of Houston, and Donna Howard of Austin.

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, daughter of the late Democratic former Gov. Ann Richards, also spoke, saying, “We’re going to do any damn thing it takes” to restore women’s rights and access.